2009 James S. Bridges Solid Waste Professional of the Year Award

The James S. Bridges Solid Waste Professional of the Year Award is given out each year to an individual who have provided valuable services and exemplary contributions to the Chapter and the field of solid waste management.

This year’s award recipient currently works for the City of Columbus Refuse Collection Department. Our award recipient is responsible for many aspects of solid waste collection and recycling in the City of Columbus. Our award recipient has been actively involved with the Ohio Buckeye Chapter since 1997 when she assisted her boss at the time, John Johnson, with the Treasurer responsibilities for the Chapter as well as coordinating many activities for the Chapter’s Annual meetings and quarterly Board Meetings.

Our award recipient became a full time board member in 2003 and has served as the Chapter’s Secretary and more recently as the current Treasurer. Unfortunately, because of budgetary constraints at the City, our award recipient will be leaving the Board and will be sorely missed for her leadership, contributions to the Chapter and her passion for solid waste management in Ohio.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present to you today, your 2009 James S. Bridges Solid Waste Professional of the year Award to Ms. Judy Johnson.

Judy Johnson, City of Columbus Refuse Collection
2009 James S. Bridges Solid Waste Professional of the Year

2009 Solid Waste Innovator Award

The Solid Waste Innovator Award is given out each year to an individual who has demonstrated unusually noteworthy achievements and/or highly significant contributions in his/her field of solid waste management that has resulted in an innovative solution to the management of solid waste.

This year’s award recipient began a process of changing the way trash and recyclables were going to be collected in the county. Our award recipient’s is a solid waste district that granted money to political subdivisions to off-set the cost of either curbside or drop-off recycling programs. As the years went on, this grant became expected, like an entitlement. Recycling program performance did not increase over time and became stagnant by 2005. As the District began updating their solid waste management plan, it became obvious that a change in the grant program was needed. The District’s Board of Directors and Policy Committee developed a new grant system that provides incentives to communities to switch their current trash and recycling collection system to a volume based collection program. At the same time, the District’s primary residential hauler, Allied Waste (now Republic) desired to develop automated collection of trash and recyclables throughout the county. The District jumped on the opportunity to incorporate the automated wheeled cart system into the volume based collection program. The District created a detailed specification on what constituted a volume based collection system and modified the grant program to incentify communities to switch to the new system. The new grant program continued funding the status quo programs from 2007-2009. Additional incentive finds were available to the larger communities to conduct pilot studies on the volume based system. If a community did not switch to an approved volume based system by 2010, then the grant funds available dropped significantly. To date 13 communities have switch to the volume based system out of 34 communities. The early results show that 11 of the 13 communities have shown significant increases in recycling. This is the first county wide volume based program in the State of Ohio and is why the District is being honored with this award.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present to you today, your 2009 Solid Waste Innovator Award to the Lorain County Solid Waste Management District. Accepting the award is the District Director, Mr. Dan Billman.

2009 Solid Waste Operator of the Year

The Solid Waste Operator of the Year Award is given out each year to an operator who has demonstrated unusually noteworthy achievements and/or highly significant contributions to the solid waste management industry.

Our award recipient was directly responsible for implementing the following at the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill:

OFFERS FRANKLIN COUNTY RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES A TIPPING FEE THAT IS $10.00 PER TON BELOW THE NEXT AVAILABLE LANDFILL